For those of us in the Northern Tradition (which encompasses the peoples with a common worship to Odin), the high holy tide of Ostara/Eostre is upon us. Some are gearing up to celebrate during the astronomical spring equinox (which varies slightly but always occurs between March 19-21), some may wait for the signs of spring in their local area, and others may postpone their celebrations so that they coincide more with the observed Christian date of Easter instead, which for 2019 occurs on April 21th. The later allows heathen children to be able to participate in more mainstream activities such as egg hunts with their peers at school and at community parks.
Long time followers know that every November I make it a priority to donate to a non-profit organization that supports our veterans. I will rotate through a number of worthy organizations, but this year I’ll be donating 100% of my etsy store proceeds in November to the American Legion. Plus to sweeten the deal, you can enjoy 15% off any item you purchase from the shop, so that means any of hundreds of prayer cards, plus bookmarks, and more that are availableat my etsy storeWyrd Curiosities.
In addition to the American Legion donation that will come from November’s etsy proceeds, I will also personally match that same amount from my pocket but donate to another worthy non-profit, the Paralyzed Veterans of America.
Use promocode VETS2021 at my etsy storeWyrd Curiositiesupon checkout. This deal expires November 30, 2021 at 11:59pm Eastern.
I had fewer entries, than I did bookmarks. That means there’s still some bookmarks up for grabs. So while supplies last you can still enter for the freebie. You can find all the details on the original post below.
As more information comes to the surface since the insurrection in my nation’s capital I just get angrier. I am so furious. I could rant on this topic for hours. While my nation grapples with the series ramifications and fallout, I always think about how it’s important not to lose sight of our Gods during both good times and bad. To that end I am giving away bookmarks of the Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, scroll down to the bottom to learn how to enter.
Queen Nefertari’s Egypt – An Exhibition
I took a much needed mental health break to Fort Worth’s Kimbell Art Museum as it is currently hosting an exhibit to Queen Nefertari’s Egypt. Nefertari was wife of Pharaoh Ramses II. When her tomb was discovered by Ernesto Schiaparelli in 1904 in the Valley of the Queens near modern day Luxor, Egypt, it had already been ransacked. Most of…
As more information comes to the surface since the insurrection in my nation’s capital I just get angrier. I am so furious. I could rant on this topic for hours. While my nation grapples with the serious ramifications and fallout, I always think about how it’s important not to lose sight of our Gods during both good times and bad. To that end I am giving away bookmarks of the Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, scroll down to the bottom to learn how to enter.
Queen Nefertari’s Egypt – An Exhibition
I took a much needed mental health break to Fort Worth’s Kimbell Art Museum as it is currently hosting an exhibit to Queen Nefertari’s Egypt. Nefertari was wife of Pharaoh Ramses II. When her tomb was discovered by Ernesto Schiaparelli in 1904 in the Valley of the Queens near modern day Luxor, Egypt, it had already been ransacked. Most of the artifacts were gone, but the tomb was still stunning, the walls were elaborately and beautifully decorated. But nearby was the artisan village of Deir el-Medina, and this exhibit features many artifacts from that village. Including a vast array of Shabtis, pottery, cosmetics and their accompanying containers. Plus several coffin lids. So you get to learn about the workers village, and women in this period of time in Egypt as well. This exhibit isn’t focused around mummies, but there are mummified remains on display, specifically the dismembered mummified legs found in Nefertari’s tomb, and is most likely all that remains of her. I wasn’t expecting it, and was annoyed to discover that in the exhibit. I’m not a fan of putting the dead on display, when during their life they had no expectation of that happening to them in their death.
Usually when we see exhibits on Ancient Egypt, it tends to be solely about the royal family and the Gods, we don’t necessarily see or learn about the life and beliefs outside of the upper echelons of society. But this exhibit talks about how houses in the worker village had niches for ancestor busts that were placed in the home’s main room, and were worshipped daily. In fact because of the isolation of this village, there were unique cultic practices we have no evidence of anywhere else in ancient Egypt, including a thriving cultic practice to Pharoah Amenhotep I, as well as Queen Ahmose-Nefertari herself. The snake goddess Meretseger also was popularly worshipped within the village.
While the Kimbell exhibit doesn’t feature the actual walls of the tomb, it does have some photos blown up on the walls to give you a sense of it. To have the Goddess Ma’at towering above you fills one with awe. This video will give you a virtual tour of the actual tomb.
While my religious praxis is within Northern Tradition polytheism, there was a brief period of exploration where I was learning about Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. There’s something awe inspiring about seeing the stone carved statues of Sekhmet that were given offerings (a different statue every day) to the lion-headed Goddess. To see stele with depictions of Osiris, Anubis, Horus, Ma’at, etc. Statuary of Taweret, as well as Bastet. There’s plenty in here to be of interest to polytheists, but especially for Kemetics.
If you’re in a reasonable distance of the museum, it’s definitely worth a trip if you feel comfortable doing so during the time of a pandemic. The museum has tried to establish a specific route among the artifacts, and attempts at social distancing and crowd control with masks being mandatory. As a member of the museum I personally was able to visit during members only hours which are even less crowded. But while it’s not the same as seeing it in person, there is a virtual tour as well you can view here.
My one complaint, is despite how brightly illuminated things look online at the museum website, in actuality the lighting is very dim, while I understand this is to help preserve the artifacts, it’s so dim as to make the decorations on the object undistinguishable on the objects at times.
In the gift shop were some painted papyrus bookmarks of various Egyptian deities. I decided to pick up a number of these for one purpose, to give them away to fellow American polytheists. Because we need a little good in the world right now considering what’s going on in national politics. This is my random act of kindness, and something that hopefully will feed the soul for some during a tense time in our country.
BOOKMARK GIVEAWAY
Bookmark Prizes
I am giving away Egyptian Gods Bookmarks for free (including shipping) to any polytheist living in the United States of America. Limit 1 per household. Bookmarks will be awarded randomly among the entries on January 15, 2021. If any bookmarks remain after that date, they will be randomly awarded on a first come, first serve basis until all bookmarks have been distributed.
To be considered you MUST completely fill out this form.
Dear Pagan and Polytheist authors you may want to check Academia.edu for illegal PDF versions of your books.
This morning I received email notification from Academia.edu of a “paper” that I might be interested in on their site. The “paper” was the entirety of Edred Thorsson’s book Futhark, which is (1) under copyright protection (2) not uploaded by the copyright holders (including the author or publisher), and (3) still in active print by Red Wheel Weiser Books. While I have no interest in the book at hand, I do very much have an interest in the red flag this puts up for copyright infringement. When I checked to see if the uploader had other “papers” on the service, this is the only one they have (so far at least) currently posted. My concern is where there is one copyright infraction on a service, there invariable will be others also scattered on the platform. Curious, I decided to poke around and I have found a few more infringing books uploaded by other users.
For those who are not familiar with Academia.edu, the service is there to allow academics to upload their papers (thesis papers, dissertations, academic conference papers, etc.) for others in the academic community to read and access as a means to engage in academic discourse with other scholars to further the research in a field of study. This principle presupposes that when someone uploads a work, it is their own work, and that there are no conflicts with publishers or other possible licensed outlets with the uploaded content. The site widely operates on the honor system. They created their site for academics, but it’s not just academics using the service anymore.
In fact when examining their site there’s two areas to “report” issues, and the options are very different depending on where you report. One option they’re more concerned with academic relevancy as their default paradigm and preventing the site from becoming a marketing channel, than they are that someone could possibly violate the copyright of others. But the other is different. From a UX (user experience) standpoint this is confusing, and these two “report” functions should be analogous with one another.
Example of “report” options at Academia.edu
Example of “report” options at Academia.edu
As someone who has had her own works stolen previously (not at Academia.edu), this is a pet peeve of mine. Simply put it’s theft. If you want more books on a topic or genre, you need to support those books and purchase. If funds are tight, that’s what tax supported libraries are for: requesting the content shows your library there’s an interest and they use that to determine spend for new books or additional copies, but the library also purchases the book supporting the author and publisher. Libraries generally pay significantly more for a book since it will get multiple uses than if an individual went to a retailer and purchased a personal copy for their self. The library pricing models vary across publishers, as well as formats (print, ebook, audiobook, etc.). The purchasing fee for a library to acquire an ebook can be up to 3 times what I would personally pay if I bought it myself. Often times libraries have to use systems that enable them to follow the one copy one user rule meaning even if the title is available electronically it can only be checked out to one user at a time. Thereby preventing a single electronic copy from being downloaded hundreds to thousands of times in one day. Some publishers require a library to repay a new use fee after the book has had a certain number of circulations or after a certain amount of time has passed, or the library will have to pull the title from circulation.
New legislation however in the US has given us creators another tool in the fight against unauthorized usage. In the COVID-19 relief bill, titled the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, signed into U.S. law last week also contained the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act (or CASE Act for short). Essentially this opens up a path by content creators and copyright holders to defend their works from unauthorized usage and cases of infringement in small claims court. Previously the only avenue to pursue for damages involved a far more cost prohibitive federal court case. The Copyright Claims Tribunal for these new small claims will run through the US Copyright Office and should they find the accusation warranted by the copyright holder have the power to send something as basic as a cease and desist warning on the copyright holders behalf, or could fine up to $30,000 per infraction.
This is a head’s up to other pagan and polytheistic writers who probably never thought their works might be posted to Academia.edu without their permission, if you’re not already on the site you may want to start keeping tabs on it.
Ah yes, it’s that time of year where people who want to know more about Yule find my site, and my stats go up by more than 7,000 unique visitors in a day.
Howdy y’all, welcome. Please feel free to like, share and follow.
Today when we hear people talk about the so-called war on Christmas, it is a battlecry of Christians who feel they have a monopoly on the winter holidays. A common refrain being Christ is the reason for the season. But in Early America, Christmas was outlawed as a criminal act, or was viewed as having no consequence at all by some of our founding forefathers–especially those of Puritan background.
This image is from a real public notice from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, published 1659 in what will later become Boston.
To understand why this notice even existed, first a bit of a history lesson is necessary. In colonial America, the Puritanical leaders (for this article I am including the Pilgrims in this group) felt that Christmas was indeed a ‘Pagan’ celebration (as explained by Puritan leadership including the minister Increase Mather of the Massachusetts Colony, such festivities were rooted in…
Here’s a deal for my fellow polytheists. Prayer Cards are on sale from Etsy shop Wyrd Curiosities with hundreds of options there’s a plethora of deities represented from a range of traditions: Norse, Germanic, Greek & Roman, Celtic, Romano-Celtic, Gaulish, Welsh, British, Mesopotamian, Canaanite, Etruscan, Baltic, Slavic, Finnish, Lithuanian, Egyptian and more!
Because the military dead figure so heavily in my venerative practices this month, and Veteran’s Day is about a week away, I have a 20% off code for you on Prayer Cards this November in my shop. Use code YAYVETS2020 at checkout. This promotion coincides with the fact that I’ll be donating a portion of all my etsy sales to Paralyzed Veterans of America (www.pva.org). So not only can you grab a good deal right before the yuletide season, (and the prayer cards can make great stocking stuffers or bits of religious cheer to send to someone in their yule card) but you will know that part of the purchase will help some of our disabled veterans too.
The Paralyzed Veterans of America organization is dedicated to serving veterans—through medical research, advocacy and civil rights for all people with disabilities. Restoring dignity by providing solutions to those…
What a great resource for our crafters. This is of especial interest to polytheists with connections to pantheons with religious connections related to: Norse, Slavic, Celtic, Egyptian, Greco-Roman, and more!
I recently posted that because 2020 has been a challenging year I was putting together a Yuletide Shopping Guide with the intent tohelp artisan members of our community & to help spotlight items that support our religious devotions and practices. I know it’s early, but I wanted to go ahead and start spotlighting project materials that DIYers may want to use to make their own gifts this yuletide.
Molds can open up a wide range of possible creations for our DIYers: candles, soaps, jewelry, décor, paperweights statuary, candies, chocolates and more. While I’ll be spotlighting some polytheistic related items, I do offer a word of caution. Read the descriptions carefully at the seller’s listing to make sure the mold can be used for the purpose you would like. I have found some sellers will use the same product listing image to sell both the mold, and an item created from…
I recently posted that because 2020 has been a challenging year I was putting together a Yuletide Shopping Guide with the intent to help artisan members of our community & to help spotlight items that support our religious devotions and practices. I know it’s early, but I wanted to go ahead and start spotlighting project materials that DIYers may want to use to make their own gifts this yuletide.
We’ll be starting off with some installments to help the bakers, crafters, and DIYers so that those who may want to create something for a yuletide gift can get their project materials before the holidays. Today’s installment is for the bakers. The pandemic has had many of us returning to our kitchens, instead of eating out. With that shift, has come a huge explosion in baking, with kitchen spices being some of the most in demand items at many grocers. I think…
Ostara by Nichol Skaggs (nicholskaggs.com) 
This image is from a real public notice from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, published 1659 in what will later become Boston. 
Wyrd Designs 
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